This Is Not My Hat has become one of my all-time favorite read alouds. I read it with students every year at the beginning of our Mock Caldecott unit. It’s a great story and it’s also excellent for showing the picture book mechanics to kids – how illustration can expand the text, how page turns can be used to build drama, and (at the climax) how wordless images can allow the reader to form their own opinion about the events of the story.

It was fun to hear how the book came to be. I hope you enjoy the episode.

Travis Jonker is an elementary school librarian in Michigan. He writes reviews (and the occasional article or two) for School Library Journal and is a member of the 2014 Caldecott committee. You can email Travis at scopenotes@gmail.com, or follow him on Twitter: @100scopenotes.